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We live in a zone 4/5 small town in Central Idaho. We always have multiple yard projects going and this will serve as our garden journal. We also add various animals to our developing small farm yearly and plan to update their antics as needed.

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Tuesday, August 4, 2009

It's finally tomato time around here! I planted 38 tomato plants this year and I am so excited to start making stuff with them. Last night was my first official harvest and I weighed 17 pounds on the scale. Not to shabby for the first picking.

More than half of my plants are Roma-style tomatoes and the others are a combination of Celebrity and Better Boys. Since it was hot and I was tired I decided that I would make simple crushed tomatoes and can them. Now that I am set up again, the next batch will be salsa or juice or sauce or something interesting. But for this one time it was easy.

I did not season the crushed tomatoes nor did I salt them. I am sharing my harvests with my mom and they don't like salt. I tend to add it to most things I cook in the form of spices anyway so I left it out. The recipe called it optional and I took them seriously. I canned pints using the boil bath method and added 1 TBSP of lemon juice to each pint jar before I added the crushed tomatoes. This assures the proper acidity for this method of canning. Last year I used up all the jars I had canned and this year I ought to have tons of tomato products lining my shelves. And yes, I am still thinking hard about making my guest room into a pantry. No one uses it much anyhow. The guest can just sleep in an awesome pantry. That would be a novel story to tell all their friends when they leave my house.

21 comments:

Nice, nice! We're hoping to have enough tomatoes to do some canning. Still need to buy the canner, and the jars, and the lids. And a recipe. Maybe we'll take a hint from you and go for something as simple as plain tomatoes to start.

The tomatoes look delicious. I am always amazed about all the things you do. Your life must be verrrrry busy. I laughed hard about the guestroom in the pantry and the tomatoes in the guest room. Lucky tomatoes, hahaha.

They are LOVELY! I love tomatoes and what a beautiful harvest you have to behold. Right now I can't plant anything in my backyard because my dogs tear it all up. They are getting better, but I'm hoping soon I'll be able to start a veggie garden again. You've got a great green thumb!

Good for you Heather. I did the same type of crushed tomatoes with the lemon juice, but I froze the tomatoes in freezer bags. I was happy with the outcome. (This year we have one tomato!! I am not happy!!)

You are such an awesome canner! I on the other hand do not do well in this matter. I found about 7 quarts of pickles I had canned two years ago. I was all excited and opened the a jar to taste the dill pickles. Ha! The pickles fell apart. They did not crisp at all. My husband was horrified and called them rotten, though they did not smell at all. All went into the compost. I debated dumping them on the hydrangeas for the acidity but decided nah. I think you may inspire me to try it again. We shall see. Unfortunately I only planted 4-5 tomato plants so I'll have to venture into pickle territory again. Yikes! Your tomatoes look great and 17 pounds is a great harvest!

Congratulations Heather! They are coming! I mean tomatoes! I have 22 plants and started to share tomatoes with my neighbors (those who water my garden while we are on the trips, first!) Roma is yummy!Good job girl!!!

Homemade tomato sauces and 'gunk' are sooooo delicious! Kudos to you for venturing into the world of canning correctly! I'm super careful (read: paranoid) because I'm always afraid a jar will go bad. So far, I've never had one!

We're in the beginning of our Roma harvest now (Zone 6b/7a) and tonight will be our second tomato-sauce meal. Later this week, I'll start canning.

I adore your guest room pantry idea. What a splendid idea!

Thanks for visiting my blog. You have a lovely blog and I will return! TTYL.

I would love to sleep in a guest pantry. When I was little, I liked to go down to Grandma's cellar and stare at the pretty colors of the canning jars. That was before reality TV. Looking at the photos of yours makes me feel the same. Keep 'em coming, you busy woman.

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About This Blog

We started this blog in Feb. of 2009 to help us stay motivated and to track our progess in the garden. We live on 5 acres surrounded by Idaho farmland. We have wildlife galore and are attempting to attract more in the bird catagory. This is our journal. Welcome!